Wikipedia can be helpful for students to use when searching for a paper topic. It gives student idea of how others have written about the topic.
Wikipedia can be a search engine to find well-researched articles.
Teachers can show students how to check if information on Wikipedia is reliable. They can check this by scrolling to the reference section and external links at bottom of Wikipedia page.
Check out the link below to see how teachers and students can use Wikipedia effectively in the classroom.
Don't believe everything you read As anyone can edit almost any article, it is of course possible for biased, out of date, or incorrect information to be posted to Wikipedia. However, because there are so many other people reading the articles and monitoring contributions using the Recent Changes page, incorrect information is usually corrected quickly. Thus, the overall accuracy of the encyclopedia is improving all the time as it attracts more and more contributors. You are encouraged to help by correcting articles, validating content, and providing useful references.
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Use at the secondary level:
Wikipedia in the Classroom
Don't believe everything you read
As anyone can edit almost any article, it is of course possible for biased, out of date, or incorrect information to be posted to Wikipedia. However, because there are so many other people reading the articles and monitoring contributions using the Recent Changes page, incorrect information is usually corrected quickly. Thus, the overall accuracy of the encyclopedia is improving all the time as it attracts more and more contributors. You are encouraged to help by correcting articles, validating content, and providing useful references.